DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 69 



object, which it is my duty to illustrate. With 

 respect to many it may be observed, that though 

 perhaps widely dispersed, yet they have their 

 metropolis. 1 Thus the gigantic whales, though 

 they are sometimes found in low latitudes, not, 

 however, within the tropics, yet their grand 

 rendezvous is in the arctic and antarctic seas ; 

 furnishing a strong proof that in these they find 

 the greatest supply of their appropriate food. 

 The giant terrestrial Mammalia, on the contrary, 

 confine themselves to intratropical regions, where 

 the luxuriance of vegetation best corresponds with 

 their enormous consumption of food. Amongst 

 the birds the Vulture, though one species, the 

 Lammer-Geyer, 2 comes as far north as the Swiss 

 Alps, generally most abounds in hot climates, 

 and is often of essential service in preventing the 

 infection, likely to be produced by putrid ani- 

 mals ; to these birds our Saviour's words, doubt- 

 less, allude, "Wheresoever the carcass is, there ivill 

 the eagles be gathered together;" the species he 

 had in his eye, was probably the Egyptian Vul- 

 ture, 3 the services of which in Egypt are strik- 

 ingly described by Hasselquist. After noticing 

 its disgusting appearance, he says : " Notwith- 

 standing this, the inhabitants of Egypt cannot 

 be enough thankful to Providence for this bird. 



See Introd. to Ent. iv. Lett. xlix. * Vultur Barbatus. 

 3 Vultur percnopterus, L. 



